2020 MLS Week 1 Referee Discussion

This is correct.

Another noteworthy point is that Manikowski passed fitness after being injured last year, so he's back on the field, as you see Week 1.

Stott hasn't yet passed fitness, which accounts for his exclusion at this point. I point that out only because "did he retire?" is always an inevitable question, but he hasn't.

There are other fitness issues, which probably are or will become obvious like in past years. But I don't think I have the exhaustive list.

 

Was waiting for this, too.

The big news here is:

1) The threshold for retaking PKs is going to be rather low, compared to what we've become accustomed to in European leagues in 2019-20. I think we could see something closer to WWC than UEFA, quite honestly. Some MLS officials were surprised by the standard being instructed, from what I've heard. But we'll see where implementation lands.

2) Everything still requires an OFR. Given the "accidental handling" and PK retakes do NOT require an OFR in the EPL and that actually seems to work decently well, this might be something that is jarring or annoying for MLS fans. We are talking about things that are objective, so the need for an OFR seems non-existent. But PRO wants to be consistent on using OFRs for anything that could change the outcome of the call, as you heard in this video. I think with, for example, PK retakes this could become very frustrating and lead to some unforeseen issues.

 

It dawns on me that American soccer fans who focus primarily on MLS & EPL really are going to have whiplash. They are going to be subjected to two extremes regarding VAR.

MLS is the only league in the world, I believe, that requires an OFR for all reviews that could result in a call being changed. While that's allowed by the IFAB Handbook, it is never recommended and in fact it's explicitly stated that any "objective" decision (offside position, GK encroachment, location of DFK/penalty, accidental attacking handling) can/should be changed without an OFR. But MLS prefers the consistency of doing an OFR for everything.

Meanwhile, the EPL goes the exact opposite route and does everything possible to avoid OFRs, going so far as to violate the Handbook (no OFRs on penalties or infractions prior to goals) and having such a high threshold for red cards that an OFR has occurred either once or twice all season.

With any match the USMNT does following IFAB/FIFA standards, things could get really confusing (and, of course, quite annoying and frustrating on this board!).

 

The issue was that it was treated as an objective, black & white issue. If video showed conclusively that a goalkeeper had left the line early by, let's say, 5 mm, then the kick was retaken and the yellow card was given. There was no discretion on enforcement.

The amount of enforcement led to FIFA getting permission from IFAB to not require the yellow card during KFTM in the knockout stages.

Given we'll have OFRs in MLS and just knowing some of the personalities involved, I don't think it will be that bad. But sometimes it's hard to remember for the masses that these are now completely different rules for the PRO officials even though we've been aware of them for a year and working with them for 9 months. I'm sure some are surprised, but many PRO officials (definitely the ones who don't regularly watch European leagues) aren't even fully aware of some of the changes until January of the following year, when they first get instructed. They don't want to confuse anything and learning new information that is irrelevant to them until the following year isn't a high priority. So, again, this is new and the instruction is new (I would guess Barkey and others didn't give it much thought at all during 2019). I think there will be growing pains here.

 

You mean the MLS approach is good?

 

This is a result of Adidas losing the UEFA contract. No need to design a new kit for EURO. Unless they somehow grab the EPL one day, I think the days of regular Adidas updates are gone. It’s going to be a four-year cycle with the World Cup.

 

Controversy in Nashville with an offside flag going up then coming down, leading to a goal. Fischer appears correct to have waved it down, but that’s not a good look for any game—never mind this one on network broadcast.